A car insurance quote confirms if a particular company is willing to offer you coverage and how much they are going to charge to insure you based on the information you provide about yourself, your history, other drivers included, your vehicle, coverage and deductibles. It is tailored for you, free, quick and you are under no obligation to accept a quote. That is why you should not hesitate to check with multiple companies to have a better understanding of your current risk profile and market conditions.
A vehicle insurance quote tells you how much premium a particular insurer will want to protect you, how much coverage they will offer, the maximum amount they will pay for a certain covered peril and how much you have to pay out of pocket if you file a claim. Price, schedule of coverage, deductibles and any restrictions are clearly written down on a quote. You will get completely different results from each company you apply to. So, this simple process allows you to fully compare your options.
Here are some of the examples of how useful getting auto insurance quotes can be before making certain decisions;
- It can tell you how competitive your current provider is. Vehicle insurance policies are often sold for a 6 month term and you need to renew every six months. Once you get your renewal terms, checking prices with other companies makes sure you don’t miss out on other opportunities like a cheaper price, better coverage and more satisfying carrier.
- You can see the cost of changes. You can find out how much insurance premium you need to pay if you buy a particular car, move to a new zip code, add a driver to your policy, make any other changes, increase deductibles or drop any coverage.
- You can find the cheapest company by getting multiple automobile insurance quotes and comparing your options. Every carrier looks at risk differently, offers various discounts at a higher or lower level than competitors and has better or worse rates.
- It gives you a chance to test an insurer. You may have been hearing about a company or discount and wondering if it is as good as you think and can save as much as they claim. The only way of finding out is by getting a car insurance quote that will tell you if you get the discounts and if it is enough to make this particular company any competitive.
- Knowing the final price removes ambiguity so you can move on or make a decision based on facts and figures.
- Getting the second or third auto insurance quote is like getting a second opinion about how good or bad your risk profile is as the rates are based on the risks associated with insuring you.
- A single quote on its own is just an opinion of one company. Getting multiple quotes offer you the chance to see the full picture. If most of them ask for high premiums to insure you, it means you are a high-risk applicant. You may have a bad driving history, have a young driver listed on your policy, have a high-performance car or live in an expensive zip code or state. This may allow you to address the issues in time or find solutions to help you now like choosing a telematics-based policy.
- Car insurance quotes are personalised for you. Why would you try to guess how much you should pay based on average premiums in a particular state or how much your friend pays when you can know exactly how much you need to pay in your current position today?
- It is an educational process. You learn new things each time that allows you to arrange better and cheaper coverage. For example, you check your credit score and find out how much it affects your rates. Or you realize, increasing deductibles do bring down your premium a lot.
The only downside to getting vehicle insurance quotes is it requires about a couple of hours of your time to gather enough information to make a fair comparison and decide if it is time to switch or not. Some companies check your credit but this is considered a soft pull and doesn’t affect your credit score. Besides, many companies may only check your credit score once you accept the quote and want to buy the insurance coverage.
Your current auto insurer wouldn’t know that you are considering your alternatives. After all the checking and probing, you can still renew your existing policy. Even if they find out, they often try to see if there is anything they can do to keep your business if you are a good customer that works in your favor.
And you can get rough estimates with very little personally identifiable information or get an accurate quote by providing all the details required in the process like driver’s license numbers and Vehicle Identification Number. You can get them online through a comparison website or directly from insurers or by contacting agents and brokers. So, there is no harm in getting a few automobile insurance quotes since you can still do whatever you want at the end and it only costs a few minutes of your time.